Bomb scare at Kemah Wal-Mart frightens customers

Sugar Land man charged after four-hour ordeal

By Craig Hlavaty, St. John Barned-Smith |
April 19, 2014

Customers leave the Wal-Mart shopping center after being kept inside for four hours while FBI bomb squad and Kemah police investigated a suspicious device in the parking lot on Saturday, April 19, 2014, in Kemah. ( J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle )

Photo By J. Patric Schneider/Freelance

Authorities investigate a suspicious device in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart shopping center on Saturday. Mehrzad Malekzadeh of Sugar Land was charged in the parking lot bomb scare.

A bomb scare paralyzed a Wal-Mart in Kemah for more than four hours Saturday, after authorities locked down the store with dozens of customers and employees inside as they apprehended an armed man with suspicious devices attached to his body in the parking lot.

Anxious friends and family waited across the street from the store in the 200 block of Deke Slayton Highway, which was locked down around 10 a.m. after police received reports of a masked man wielding a knife in a car.

"I was on my way out, and police wouldn't let me get to my car," said Val Davis of League City, one of dozens of shoppers who flooded out of the store when officers cleared the scene around 2:15 p.m. "I thought, 'What the heck! My grandson has a baseball game at 2 p.m. in downtown Houston, and this is causing me to miss it?'"

Police said that initial reports placed the man in a nearby Target parking lot around 9 a.m., but that he moved to the Wal-Mart parking lot, where they soon located his blue Nissan Sentra - and eventually him.

Mehrzad Malekzadeh, 36, of Sugar Land had several "unknown devices" in his pockets and attached to his body, police said. Some of them turned out to be black stones taped together to appear to be bombs, according to an officer at the scene. Malekzadeh, who was not combative and cooperated with police, seemed to be suffering from mental problems, said the officer, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak for the Kemah Police Department.

Members of Pasadena's bomb squad and FBI bomb technicians removed numerous devices from his body and car, placing them in a huge, white, metal sphere-shaped vault that they towed to the Wal-Mart parking lot. None of the items turned out to be hazardous, according to FBI officials.

Malekzadeh was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats and displaying a hoax bomb, both of which are Class A misdemeanors. He was taken to the Galveston County Jail and held on a $5,000 bail. Calls to family members Saturday were not answered.

Online court records show Malekzadeh had several minor run-ins with the law, the most serious being a disorderly conduct charge in 1997, disposed of a year later.

While police apprehended him, employees and customers inside the store were instructed to stay clear of windows.

"They've come around with baskets of snacks and water for those locked down in the store," said John Lamar, who works in the store's automotive department.

A crowd of about 50 nervous friends, family, spectators and would-be shoppers outside as rumors swirled that police were still looking for a second suspect. (That turned out to be just that, a rumor.)

"I was freaked out. This stuff doesn't happen here. Sometimes there's a shooting ... but never stuff like this," said Brandon Blackwelder, whose sister cuts hair in the store's salon, but wasn't working Saturday.

One woman, who identified herself only as Nina, was waiting for her fellow co-workers inside.

"I'm scared," she said, pressing her hands against her heart. "It makes you nervous."

In the end, not even a bomb scare could keep shoppers away. As soon the site was declared safe, a fresh batch of customers headed inside.

"I need to get my stuff [for Easter]," said Cynthia Garcia, of Seabrook. "I'm sure they did a good job clearing the place."